was a Japanese film actress who was particularly prominent in the silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 era. Her real name was Komako Kuragata.

Career

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture

Kanagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture located in the southern Kantō region of Japan. The capital is Yokohama. Kanagawa is part of the Greater Tokyo Area.-History:The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period...

, Hara made her motion picture debut in 1924 in the film Rakujitsu no yume. At studios such as Tōa Kinema and Makino Talkie, she achieved fame specializing in starring roles playing vamps

Femme fatale

A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...

, dokufu (poison women), and yakuza

Yakuza

, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...

 molls in jidaigeki

Jidaigeki

is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. The name means "period drama" and is usually the Edo period of Japanese history, from 1603 to 1868. Some, however, are set much earlier—Portrait of Hell, for example, is set during the late Heian period—and the early Meiji era is also a popular...

. In the sound era, she shifted to secondary roles in films by directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi

Kenji Mizoguchi

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...

, Masahiro Makino

Masahiro Makino

was a Japanese film director of more than 260 films, primarily in the chanbara and yakuza genres. His real name was Masatada , but he took the stage name Masahiro, the kanji for which he changed multiple times .-Career:...

, and Keigo Kimura. She appeared in over 200 films in her career.

Selected filmography

• Rakujitsu no yume (落日の夢) (1924)
• Aishō (愛傷) (1926)
• The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate
  The Mountain Pass of Love and Hate
  is a 1934 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.-External links:...
  
  (愛憎峠 Aizo toge) (1934)
• Maria no Oyuki (マリアのお雪) (1935)
• Onna Sazen (女左膳) (1937)
• Chikemuri Takadanobaba (血煙高田の馬場) (1937)
• The Life of Oharu
  The Life of Oharu
  is a 1952 historical fiction black-and-white film by director Kenji Mizoguchi starring Kinuyo Tanaka as Oharu, a one-time concubine of a daimyō who struggles to escape the stigma of having been sold into prostitution by her father...
  
  (西鶴一代女 Saikaku Ichidai Onna) (1952)

External links